Winter Wonderland

Just a few pics from our playing in the snow on Christmas Day! We woke up to another foot on Christmas morning, (on top of the foot we got the day before) and had to shovel our way out... and 4-wheel-drive it! to make it to Christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas!

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I haven't stamped in awhile, either. The kids are so excited for Christmas... and they will likely be able to play in snow on Christmas Day! This is the scene at our house right now.... and it is still coming down! The radio said this will be the first white Christmas in 37 years - I find that hard to believe, so I might have to research that myself!

Love You Much!

Well, as we faced blizzard warnings and crazy snowfalls last night, I decided to do some non-winter stamping fun. Valentine's is just around the corner and Stampin' Up! has a fun new stamping bundle that will get you feelin' the love!

VIEW THE BUNDLE FLYER - CLICK HERE!!!

The Love You Much stamp set, Heart to Heart punch and adorable Candy Land Designer paper have been bundled together at 20% off the retail price. As a further bonus, if you place your order for this right on December 23rd (promotion runs between Dec. 23 and January 31st) you will also get free shipping!!!! That's 30% savings.

CLICK HERE to start shopping - just click on the "shop now" button at the top of the page!!

** All Retiring Stamp sets (see list HERE) are on sale for 10% off regular price... offer ends Dec. 23rd.

If you live locally, and want to order this bundle at 20% off, and take advantage of free shipping, then please email me (stampinsars(AT)hotmail.com) before Dec. 23rd, so I can place the order on the 23rd, and take advantage of free shipping. If you have any questions, just email me at the same address, and ask away!!

Here are a few samples I stamped up last night using these fabulous new products....

Blizzard?? HERE??

Weird, but true - we're having "white-out-blizzard-stay-off-the-road-emergency-crew-only conditions here." I'd be ok if school was cancelled tomorrow, but that's doubtful because they don't like to close schools as it makes it hard for the parents that can't find sitters for their kids... Steve's out shovelling right now. The snow has stopped for the moment, but more is on its way. I opened the door to take this pic and just about froze to death... it's so weird because I was wearing sandals just over a week ago, and I am sure that I'll get to wear them again before the end of '08... or at least in early 2009. The snow is pretty, but that's about it!!!! At least I've got a few snow pics for the scrapbook now... but I think we had some from April, too, so I really didn't need some in December!!!!

Stay safe, stay warm and stay HOME!

Snow...

Yes, it did!

These pics are from this morning when we had some friends over... of course the kids wanted to play outside in the snow. So, after bundling them all up, which takes about 20 minutes... we sent them out in the snow. They lasted about 20 minutes before they wanted to come in!!! It continued to snow after I took these, and we have a few more centimetres than these pics show... and snow drifts in places of up to a foot. It's a good day for me to stay home, I think!

1-2-3- BUILD!!!

Wow... that's all I can say. 17 little bodies (2 kids were missing today) all building at once, lots of icing, lots of candies, lots and lots of energy! I have to say "hats off" to Scott's kindergarten teacher... she must drink coffee! Today I had the joy of helping in Scott's classroom with the building of gingerbread (graham wafer!) houses. The houses and roofs were already assembled, and the kids had the grand assignment of decorating. When Ms. C noticed that there was still a TON of candy left over, she encouraged each child to stuff their houses FULL of candy as well! There were 6 moms helping out today, and it was fun to get to know a couple of them better, as well.

Here are a few pics of the gingerbread house making process! I do think my son gets the prize for the heaviest house... he used every bit of his icing, and covered every inch (inside and out!) of his house!!!




While some kids went for the patterned and organized look, Scott went for the "mountain-of-candy" effect, and accomplished it beautifully, if I do say so myself!!!! (there is actually a house under all that sugar!!)

A weekend getaway!

This past weekend, Steve and I were able to take off into Vancouver for 2 nights... thanks to some friends!! And thanks to Steve's parents for taking the kids! We were celebrating our 7th anniversary, which is actually on Dec. 22.

We stayed at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel... beautiful!

This is in our hotel lobby...

The view from "The Lookout" restaurant.... gorgeous!

The Lookout by day!!!

We did a lot of walking, window shopping, and even took in a double feature at the IMAX theatre. Then when we went to walk back to our hotel after the movie, we were greeted with snow! It was a surreal experience because the final scene of the movie was softly falling snow (the movie was the Polar Express) and then we walked out to softly falling snow... for real!!!!

Our stylin' 3D glasses!!

Snow? Oh NOOOO!!!!

We have been told to expect a dump of snow this weekend... my kids are pretty excited. Me? Not so much! But it was kind of fun going through the snow/winter clothes and seeing the kids get so excited about the prospect of snow. It was snowing earlier today, but now it is just windy and rainy... pretty much normal for these parts at this time of the year! ** one thing I just noticed (that is also pretty common around here) is that 2 of my kids have mismatched socks on!!!

Yesterday, I was the classroom helper in Scott's class... the weather was so beautiful that the kindergarten kids and their grade 2 buddies got to have Buddy time at the playground for the last 20 minutes of the day. Good call on the teacher's part, because it wouldn't have happened today!

Upcoming Classes

Just a quick post to say I've updated my class list... Six new classes are posted on the sidebar. Check them out and let me know if you would like to sign up for any of them!

FREE SHIPPING

Not only is Stampin' Up! offering a discount on retiring sets (see previous post) I just learned that SU! is also offering FREE SHIPPING!!!!!

From December 9 through December 23, all workshop, customer, and demonstrator orders of $100 or more will receive free shipping.

Going... Going... GONE!

Stampin' Up! has just released their 2008 Fall/Winter Catalogue Retiring Stamp set list. And for the first time ever, the sets are offered at a 10% discount! So, if you have been eyeing any of these sets, don't delay. You still have time to place an order to arrive by Christmas (cut off is tomorrow, after that the order could arrive, but there are no guarantees)

Here are some links for you to check out...

RETIRING SETS ALPHABETICAL

RETIRING SETS NUMERICAL

SALE FLYER

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!!

My parents came over last weekend for a visit, and my mom made the comment that she hadn't ever seen our tree up in this house since we moved here. Well, I thought we could fix that pretty quickly... so on November 30th, we put up our tree... Papa called out which branches went next (colour coded) as we assembled the artificial tree (that's right people, we have an artificial tree!!! We always had a fake tree growing up, except for one year when we got a real one and it left a stain several feet in diameter on the living room carpet - the water leaked and then caused the red tree skirt to run... anyway, we had to change the carpet before we could sell that house! And, since we've been married, we've always used a fake tree, too).

Ok, back to my story... Scott and Todd helped me add the branches, and Elise tried to steal the branches away from them :) My mom kept Elise entertained while the tree was being assembled and Steve took a bunch of pictures. Once the tree was standing tall and proud, it was time for ornaments. I went through the boxes trying to find all the ones that were silver and blue because that was my husband's decoration request this year. The kids and my mom put the decorations on the tree, and only one got broken (Elise was testing each one to see if they bounced - one didn't!)

Here are a few pics of us setting up for your viewing pleasure!





Elise's turn to put on the star!!

I think she did a great job!!!

She tried again...

And finally got it!!!

I couldn't have Christmas without red, so I put the red ornaments and stockings in the hallway.

My "Sarah's Angels" collection that I've received over the years from my sister.

I love Christmas!!!!

Scrapathon

Just over a month ago, I had a really fun day of scrapbooking with my friend Melanie. She has gone to a Scrapathon put on by one of our local scrapbook stores for a few years now, and this time around she invited me to join her. It was so fun, and there were door prizes, a registration gift bag and an amazing turkey dinner with all the fixin's!

I completed many, many layouts that day... some for my 8 1/2 X 8 1/2 travel album, some for my kids' albums, and even a couple for my 2008 yearbook. (8 1/2 X 11 size). I made this page, and then left myself a note in each photo block to remind myself which pictures to get printed from that day. I opted to print them in sepia because then they would all go with my layout colour choices.

Dare To Be Fabulous!

When I first saw the set "Fabulous Flowers" in the SU! catalogue, I loved it! But for some reason, I didn't buy it right then... other sets seemed more practical, perhaps, or I had already spent my budget for that month!! (ha! like I have a stamping budget - kidding...) But whatever the reason, I only purchased it recently, and I have really been having fun with it since. I love the saying, "Dare to be Fabulous," and I think the set lends itself to any colour combination.

Here is a card I made this week while playing around with the set. I inked the stamps in Pumpkin Pie and then used a red marker to colour the edges. Markers are so versatile, and one of my favourite things to do with them is to ink right onto the stamp.


card measures 5 1/4 X 5 1/4 square and fits perfectly in the large square envelopes from SU!

I saw the light!

Written by my mother...

This morning I thought I was a gonner...

I even saw the light at the end of the tunnel that people talk about when they are dying...

It was pitch black out and I headed out to get the newspaper before 7am. I went my usual route out the back door and down the stairs...I thought I was on the last step but I wasn't. I had enough time to call out, 'Oh Lord Help Me.' and I fell and smashed the back of my head on the packed gravel and instantly I saw a bright light...I really felt that was it. I felt no pain from the bang to the back of my head...It was then that I realized that the fall triggered the motion light to shine directly into my face. It was not the shortest prayer recorded but the Lord is Good and I am Thankful.

The shortest prayer recorded in the Bible is where Peter walking on the water toward Jesus, lost faith, and started to sink, and called out, "Lord Save Me."

You all have a good day :)

Love Mom

My Blog Updates

I just added a link on the side of my blog, powered by FeedBlitz, that enables you to get an email when I update my blog. If you want to do this, please add your email where it says.

Thanks so much Lisa for helping me figure this out!!!

Writing Lines...

I made Scott write lines today. He had begged for me to write something out for him to copy, then after he had done a beautiful job of printing out the words, he scribbled them all out. I said, "Now you are in trouble, and your punishment is lines." He actually thought they were quite fun to do...some punishment, eh?! He's 5, so he had to write "I am sorry" 5 times....